Enough of the climate-denying clowns, say BBC bigwigs

There’s a fine line between impartial and stupid, and the BBC has been working the wrong side of the line. A report by the independent BBC Trust has concluded that the public broadcaster has been giving too much air time to climate deniers. Broadcasts, the report stated, should more accurately represent the best available science — or, as The Telegraph elegantly put it, “BBC staff told to stop inviting cranks on to science programmes.”

The report found that there was still an ‘over-rigid application of editorial guidelines on impartiality’ which sought to give the ‘other side’ of the argument, even if that viewpoint was widely dismissed.

Some 200 staff have already attended seminars and workshops and more will be invited on courses in the coming months to stop them giving ‘undue attention to marginal opinion.’

This kind of “fair and balanced” reporting on climate change, which puts snake oil on an equal footing with peer reviewed science, is neither fair nor balanced. Imagine if Car Talk replaced one of the mechanics with a third brother whose training was in phrenology, and he believed your car didn’t stop running because the tank was empty, but rather that this was just a natural ebb in the cyclical nature of your Chevy’s ability to get you to work in the morning. This is the kind of expert we’re talking about.

So kudos to you, BBC, for keeping the scientific conversation grounded in science from here on out.